Tuesday, August 14, 2007

An Experiment

As I mentioned previously, WW has changed since my first time through. Some of the changes are minor (like the Core program giving "approved" snacks - ha!), and some are more significant; mainly, the way daily points are calculated. It used to be that male or female, your daily points depended on your weight. Every 25 pounds lost saw two points per day lost.

Now it's different. There's a quiz you take, and your answers assign points values. It's based on a combination of age, weight, height, sex, and daily activity. Even though I am completely sedentary for my job, I started out with four more points than I did last time. That's roughly 200 calories extra per day. On paper, that doesn't seem like much - but it seems like a ton to me.

I had trouble eating 30 points last time. Now I often find myself coming to the end of the day with 10 points left, and absolutely no desire to eat a thing. One thing hasn't changed - you are supposed to eat all of your daily points. Because I'm struggling to get in my daily points, I've hardly touched my Flex points (the 35 extra you get each week to "spend" however you choose). This is where the experiment comes in.

My weight loss has not been as good as it was the first time. I haven't decided yet if it's because I'm eating more, because I'm doing some serious muscle-building exercise, or because I'm not digging into the Flex points like I was before. So for this week, I decided to take two days to burn through the flexies. Since the air conditioning has been out, cooking has been a laughable pursuit, so it seemed a good time to eat out and blow some points. Yesterday I had a burrito, cookies, and ice cream. Gotta love WW!

My theory (at least the first one) is this: I've had a pretty consistent daily caloric intake for the last several weeks. It could be that my metabolism is getting complacent b/c it thinks it knows what I will be feeding my body. My hope is that by shaking it up for two "heavy" days, I will actually burn more calories in the long haul. I know this sounds weird, but there is some scientific research to back it up. I just don't know if that's my actual problem or not. I'll find out soon enough - Thursday is my weigh-in day.

I'm crossing my fingers and toes that today the a/c will be fixed, and I can go back to cooking today. I have so many yummy veggies in the fridge, just begging to be eaten!

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About Me

Who am I? A 30-something creative soul who loves to scrapbook, struggles with her weight, and in the middle of earning a degree in nursing. I'm also a cook, maid, photographer, Sunday school teacher, daughter, wife, and mother. I've got a dry sense of humor, a love for change, and a desire to do something significant with my life - even if it only matters to a few people.